JVP-splinter Frontline Socialist Party-led People’s Struggle Alliance has called for an urgent and wide-ranging investigation into what is believed to be a mass grave uncovered during ongoing excavation work within the Colombo Port premises, where officials have already identified skeletal remains belonging to at least 88 individuals.

The members of the Alliance visited the Ministry of Justice last Monday seeking official information regarding the discovery, which has reignited longstanding concerns over the country’s history of enforced disappearances and political violence.

Addressing reporters, Attorney-at-Law cum FSP’s candidate at the last presidential election, Nuwan Bopage, said that evidence emerging from the site strongly suggests the presence of mass graves and underscored the need for full transparency in the excavation process.

Bopage accused successive governments of exploiting such discoveries for political gain during election periods, only for the momentum to dissipate once polls conclude.

“There is a recurring pattern where attention spikes during elections, but no concrete action follows,” he said.

Bopage added that Sri Lanka’s long and turbulent history, including the 1971 and 1988–89 insurrections, had seen widespread abductions, extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances. Referring to the latest discovery, Bopage questioned the identity of the victims, the circumstances of their deaths, and who should be held accountable. “Justice cannot be buried along with the victims,” he stressed.

Alliance members also voiced suspicion that the remains may correspond to individuals who disappeared during previous uprisings, including members of the JVP.

The suspected mass grave at the Colombo Port was first unearthed in July 2024, when a private construction company digging six feet below ground for the Port City Expressway project encountered human remains near the Old Secretariat building in Colombo Fort.

Excavations officially commenced on 05 September, 2024. under the direction of the Chief Magistrate of Colombo, with oversight from Additional Magistrate Kasun Kanchana Dissanayake. Senior archaeologist Prof. Raj Somadeva has been supervising the scientific aspects of the dig.

Judicial Medical Officers, archaeologists, and representatives from the Office on Missing Persons (OMP) have been involved in the process, after the Magistrate empowered the OMP to assist in investigating the potential mass graves.

Police confirmed that a second phase of excavations took place on 26–28 September, after which the recovered skeletons were transferred to the Colombo (North) Crimes Unit laboratory for analysis and kept under police protection. Officials have confirmed that several more skeletons continue to emerge, prompting the need for further excavation.

When work resumed in January, 2025, forensic archaeologists warned that many more skeletons were likely present at the site. However, within days, the dig was halted once again due to a lack of government funding. Human remains were left submerged in muddy water, and journalists documented the absence of even basic protective covering over the exposed bone material.

Forensic experts have repeatedly warned that Sri Lanka’s mass grave sites require uninterrupted excavation and scientific preservation to protect crucial evidence.

Justice Minister Harshana Nanayakkara recently said that Sri Lanka has now recorded 17 mass grave sites across the country, many of which remain only partially investigated.